


Miraculous Defenders

by xjayju



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrinette, DJWifi, F/F, F/M, Multi, miraculous defenders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2019-07-10 09:57:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15946991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xjayju/pseuds/xjayju
Summary: “I am studying archeology after all” Chloe says, her golden locks reflecting the dim moonlight filtering through the night clouds, “these rocks are like the back of my hand.”“You mean, 'you know these rocks like the back of your hand.” Nino sighed. Adrien suppressed the chuckle in the back of his throat. Even in the dark he could practically hear Nino roll his eyes at Chloe’s lack of knowledge when it came to archeology or simple sayings.





	1. Snippet

**Author's Note:**

> Doing a little bit of creative writing.  
> I love the concept of Voltron and the characters from Miraculous Ladybug so I thought I'd create a universe that catered to the ML spinoff of Voltron.  
> I've aged up the characters to be in Uni. So they're all 19, not their canon ages.

“I really don’t think we should be out here” Adrien mumbled under his breath, barely attempting to resist the tugging at his sleeve anymore.

“Well of course _some of us_ shouldn’t be,” Chloe sneered, glancing back at Marinette, Nino and Alya trailing behind, “but you’re with me Driki, I’m sure daddy will be okay with a little late night stroll.”

Marinette cringed in the dark at Chloe’s nickname for Adrien. Chloe had outgrown ‘Adrikins’ after their graduation and had so brilliantly came up with ‘Driki’ in attempt to keep the reminisces factor.

“I _am_ studying archeology after all” Chloe says, her golden locks reflecting the dim moonlight filtering through the night clouds, “these rocks are like the back of my hand.”

“You mean, 'you know these rocks like the back of your hand.” Nino sighed. Adrien suppressed the chuckle in the back of his throat. Even in the dark he could practically hear Nino roll his eyes at Chloe’s lack of knowledge when it came to archeology or simple sayings.

Archeology is the only common ground Nino and Chloe shared, and even then they were miles apart.

Chloe had declared Archeology as her major after seeing the polished stones and gems her father kept in his office at the university. She keeps her modeling career miles ahead of her studies, and stays even further away from the dirt when it comes to outdoor class work.

Nino shared a few classes with Chloe the first semester they started and had switched out by the end of syllabus day. The professor had begun passing different types of rocks and dirt samples from around the campus for everyone to look at when Chloe nearly shattered a jar because some dirt had gotten smudged on her “freshly pressed blouse” and it’d “ruin her career” if anyone saw her in such an untidy manner. Now Nino only knows of Chloe’s outbursts through stories from members of the study group he put together. Some of the meetings in which Chloe invites herself to.

“Wouldn’t be surprised if the back of her hands _were_ like rocks” Alya whispers to Marinette, “with all that foundation she wears, who knows what her skin actually looks like.

Marinette lets out a soft giggle as to not raise any suspicions from Alya, silently thanking the clouds that were beginning to shift, sealing the last rays of the moon, immersing them deeper into the darkness.

Marinette and Alya grew even closer since they’d both gotten accepted to the same Uni and roomed together in the on-campus dorms. Alya was an open book, sometimes even more open than Marinette would prefer - especially when it came to the stories Alya would tell about what she and Nino would do when they’d sneak out of their dorms after hours. There are still some parts of campus Marinette will avoid.

And as good as Alya was at including every minute detail, she was even more keen on reading Marinette. There were no secrets when it came to the duo - except for the one night last Christmas break when Marinette’s flight got cancelled due to the snowstorm.

Marinette’s plans to visit her family for the holidays were shut down when a snowstorm hit the campus town, cancelling nearly every flight coming and going. Coincidentally, Adrien had no plans of leaving campus either. Although he and Natalie grew closer after his father left, Adrien preferred to spend his break on campus. He liked it best when the halls were empty and no students roamed the courtyards.

Alya and Nino had booked out of there a week before break had started, carpooling in her parents’ hand-me-down bright yellow Buggie to hang out in the neighboring city some miles away before flying out. Marinette had told Alya about how she and Adrien had spent some time together over break, but had conveniently left out the one night they sat around the main hall’s fireplace all night, talking. About their old school in France, Adrien’s father… even Chloe.

It’d only been a few months since then, but Marinette had cut back on the snarky remarks she’d make about Chloe. She’d still try her best to avoid her in the halls but now found it nearly impossible to make eye contact with her whenever she was around. Luckily, Alya read it as Marinette being hurt about the photoshoot Adrien and Chloe were paired for that got published in the Uni paper. Marinette had never been so thankful for Chloe’s decision to go into modelling, what Adrien shared with her about Chloe wasn’t her secret to share - not even with Alya.


	2. The Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first chapter of Miraculous Defenders.
> 
>  
> 
> The stars are shining, the moon is bright. Out in the courtyard, a figure runs through the night.

A soft moan escapes Adrien’s lips as he rolls over in bed. He blinks away the sleep he barely feels like he’d gotten as his eyes adjust to the dark.

 

3:17am

 

Ugh. Why’d he even look at the time? Nino lets out a sigh as he shifts in his sleep. Adrien longingly watches his dormmate for a second more, wishing more than anything to go back to sleep too.

 

It’d been days, weeks probably, since Adrien could remember the last time he’d slept through the night. Every night was the same routine: dinner at 7, chill session with Nino and occasionally Marinette and Alya if they were free, homework until curfew, then lay in bed for hours until sleep finally came - if he was lucky.

 

Curfew at the Garrison is 10pm; midnight for the upper class. He had to admit, it was weird being 20 years old and still having a curfew. Students were allowed to wander around within the building, they just weren’t allowed outside which was unfortunate for Adrien. He always found it easiest to focus on his studies whenever he did them outside in the courtyard. Something about looking up at a ceiling of real stars was more preferable than the cheap plastic glow-in-the-dark ones that were left behind by the previous dorm occupants. But that didn’t sway Dean Bourgeois to let him stay out past curfew last time Adrien had lost track of time. ‘Safety precautions,’ as he called them.

 

Adrien rolls onto his back and tries to get comfortable again. He needs to get some sleep, he has a photoshoot at 7:30 in the morning. If he falls asleep now, he can get… if it’s 3:30 now, he lazily counts forward in his head - four hours of sleep. Right. That’s not too bad. His eyelids begin to close as Nino’s rhythmic breathing slowly lulled him to - “ _ **ADRIEN**_!”

 

“What the-!” Nino gasps as he flails his pillow onto the ground.

 

“No…” Adrien groans, shoving his face into his mattress.

 

“Is that Chloe?” Nino mumbles, turning on the lamp next to his bed.

 

Adrien pulls the covers over his head. Why is she here? She’s part of the morning photoshoot too. Did this girl not plan on sleeping tonight?

 

“ _Adrien_! I know you’re awake, I can see the light under the door.” Chloe’s voice is muffled, but it still rings in both boys’ ears.

 

“Damn it” Nino grumbles under his breath, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, realizing his mistake and fumbling to turn the lamp back off.

 

“ ** _DON’T YOU PRETEND TO BE ASLEEP! I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE!_** ” Chloe’s voice escalates to a shriek as she begins to pound on the door.

 

“She’s going to wake up the whole wing…” Adrien whines, throwing the blanket off.

 

“You know,” Nino mumbles, reaching for his glasses in the dark, “we _could_ kill her.”

 

“Very funny,” Adrien rolls his eyes as he hastily picks up a shirt from the floor and puts it on.

 

“I have a knife,” Nino continues, sitting up.

 

Adrien ignores Nino’s disapproving look as he unlocks the door.

 

“Finally!” Chloe breathes, pushing the door all the way open, “Come on, let’s go. I need to show you something.”

 

Chloe reaches for Adrien’s wrist, but he pulls away.

 

“Go where?” Adrien shakes his head in confusion, “Now? Chloe it’s 3 in the morning. We have a shoot tomorrow -”

 

“Forget the shoot!” Chloe snaps impatiently.

 

Adrien’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, Chloe’s never disregarded a photoshoot before - especially ones where she and Adrien get paired together.

 

Chloe’s expression shifts as she realizes what she’d just said. “I-I mean, we have time. Just, come on.”

 

“Chloe, are you okay?” Adrien asks.

 

“Yeah, it’s not often you put anything else before your precious photoshoots.” Nino adds, coming up behind Adrien.

 

“Ugh, butt out” Chloe replies, looking him up and down, “and put a shirt on. You’re not impressing anyone.”

 

“Trust me, there’s no one here worth impressing.” Nino spits back.

 

“What is it that you even want to show me this late?” Adrien interjects. He’s seen how long, and malicious Nino and Chloe’s arguments can get if no one stopped them. They’d never had the best chemistry, despite knowing each other for years and unwillingly sharing the same best friend. Normally they stayed out of each other’s way, but on the rare occasion they crossed paths... like the last time Nino called her out about… Adrien shakes the thought from his head and tries to focus on what Chloe’s saying.

“... that I told you about before, remember?” Chloe looks at him expectedly.

 

“Uh..” Crap. The sleepless nights were starting to catch up with him. Adrien can barely focus on keeping his balance.

 

“Writing on the cave walls?” Nino interrupts, “What caves, there are no caves around here.”

 

“First of all,” Chloe exasperatedly sighs, “it’s extremely rude to eavesdrop, let alone _intrude_ on a conversation that doesn’t involve you.”

 

“Intrude?” Nino smirks, “You want to talk about intruding? You bang on _OUR_ door at _THREE_ in the-”

 

“Second of all,” Chloe continues, “there are caves a quarter mile away behind the west wing dorms.” She motions matter-of-factly, her silver bracelets jingle, gently echoing throughout the empty halls.

 

“I figured _of all people_ an archeology major would at least know the local terrain,” Chloe smirks at Nino, raising an eyebrow.

 

“Behind - those grounds are off limits. It’s private property,” Nino exclaims.

 

“The school owns it,” Chloe says impatiently, “daddy practically owns the school, so therefore-”

 

“Chloe I don’t think it’s a good idea to go out there,” Adrien sighs, “especially past curfew.”

 

“Hah,” Chloe rolls her eyes, “that’s cute. Don’t worry, we won’t get caught.”

 

“There are security cameras everywhere-” Adrien objects.

 

“Trust me,” Chloe says, her tone shifting, “Adrien. We don’t have much time. Please, I just need to know what it means.”

 

“Know what, what means?” Adrien shakes his head in confusion, “I thought you said there was just some writing on the walls. You’ve seen them before.”

 

“Yeah, but...” Chloe’s voice falls to a whisper.

 

“But reading wasn’t always her strong suit” Nino scoffs, turning away mumbling to himself.

 

Chloe’s eyes begin to burn again as she bites her lip.

 

Adrien sighs, fighting the urge to follow Nino’s lead and go back to bed. But he’s never seen Chloe act like this before.

 

“But what?” he encourages.

 

Chloe looks up at him. Her eyes still burning, not with rage… but with curiosity, ambition? What could it be that has her this riled up?

 

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen them glow.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing dialogue for these characters is fun. I know Nino isn't as snippy with Chloe in canon but again, I've aged them up to be 19-20, and I've tweaked their personalities a bit. 
> 
> I also have backstory for all of them that's more or less similar to their backgrounds in canon. This is a new universe and it's all just for fun.
> 
> I hope you enjoy getting to know all of them in this world.
> 
> Thank you for reading, hope you enjoy!
> 
> -xJj


	3. Caves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sharp knock wakes Alya from her slumber. 
> 
> Mari is such a heavy sleeper. How does she do it?
> 
> Alya rolls out of bed and shuffles to the door. Nino knows she has a test in the morning, this had better be good...

“Glowing cave walls?”

Alya leans against her door frame, letting out another yawn.

“Babe I’m telling you,” Nino insists, “Chloe’s finally lost it.”

“She’s stretching pretty far for this one,” Alya agrees, “She couldn’t think of something else? Like…” She scratches the back of her head, her natural curls bouncing on her shoulders. “Like, oh, I don’t know. ‘Oh Adrien come with me to the dark caves, it’s so scary and mysterious. Let’s make out.’” Alya scoffs, annoyed by her own impression of the girl she’s despised since their first year at the Garrison.

Alya was applying for the Journalism program and had interviewed Chloe, along with a couple other Uni models, for her final project. After changing her report topic and swapping in and out [blank] hundreds of times, because it just didn’t sound… quite… right…? Maybe it was the caffeine overdose or the collage of words that formed on her computer screen every 5 minutes because she hadn’t slept in who knows how long anymore. Regardless, Alya had finally gotten her story straight and everything was flowing perfectly.

The next week, Alya not only received an acceptance letter into the Journalism program, but her report was featured on the front page of the school’s paper. It was almost too good to be true. Almost.

After storming to her father about not being put in the report when she’d so generously donated her time for the interview, Dean Bourgeois called Alya into his office for a firm warning.

“I wasn’t trying to overthrow her!” Alya insisted, knowing fully well she’d already lost this battle, “Just because I included Sabrina’s interview, doesn’t mean I was trying to ruin Chloe’s image.”

“Regardless,” Dean Bourgeois declared, “it’s extremely unprofessional to quote the designer and not mention the model or source of inspiration.”

Alya scoffed, what was he even saying? Unprofessional? Source of inspiration?

“Sir, with all due respect for your ‘source of inspiration’-”

“That will be all Miss Cesaire” Dean Bourgeois concluded, standing up from his desk and walking across his office to the door. “Now if you don’t mind, I have meetings to tend to.”

“Aghhhhh. That girl doesn’t even deserve the corner section of the lost and found, let alone the front page.” Alya huffs, angrily crossing her arms and blowing a lock of her curls off the frame of her glasses.

“Baby,” Nino sighs, rubbing her shoulders, “let’s not get into that again.”  
“Yeah, I know” Alya says, feeling herself relax to his touch.  
“What do you think she’s talking about with those glowing cave walls though?”

“I don’t know, but if we don’t hurry we’ll lose them.” Nino urged, “Wake up Marinette and let’s go.”

\--------------------

“These caves are a lot bigger up close,” Adrien comments, craning his neck upward as they approach the lip of the cave.

“The walkways narrow once we get underground.” Chloe warns, pulling his arm as she walks ahead of him.

“Hold on,” Alya says, stopping in her tracks, “these caves go underground?”

“Yeah,” Chloe replies impatiently, not even bothering to slow her pace, “Where else would they go? The sky?”

Adrien stumbles to keep up with Chloe. The air was getting thicker, dusty, he felt a shiver go down his spine. When did it get so cold? How far had they gone? His eyes strained to pierce through the darkness, but the moonlight was long gone behind them, lost to the winding tunnels. Their footsteps began to echo louder the further they walked. His ears rang with the empty silence. This was such a stupid idea. Why’d he let her talk him into this? What time was it? If he just picked a comfy rock to lay on, maybe he could still get a good couple hours of sleep-

“Watch your step,” Chloe’s voice echoes, shattering his fantasy “there’s a drop riiiight, here.” 

Adrien grips the walls to balance himself. “Chloe, let’s just go back” he mumbles, “I-ow!”  
“Ahhh!” Chloe’s scream pierces the silence.  
Adrien finds himself in a tangle of bodies, and he’s pretty sure he scraped his knee on the way down.  
“What is wrong with you?!” Chloe shrieks, Adrien can feel her legs struggling to move, but they’re both pinned down by the weight of Alya and Nino.  
“Maybe it’s pitch black down here and we can’t tell if you randomly decide to stop walking?” Alya shoots back, shifting her weight. His head is on someone’s torso. This shirt is so soft….  
“I literally said there’s a drop right here” Chloe fumes.  
Adrien closes his eyes. Finally, an excuse to lie down.  
“Guys” The body beneath him shifts gently, almost as though trying not to disturb him.  
“Guys look!” the voice calls again. It’s Marinette.  
“Look at what?” Alya huffs, “It’s too dark to… whoa”  
“What the…” Nino sounds as surprised as Alya.  
What are they talking about? Adrien feels the weight stumble off of him. Is everyone standing up? What do they see? It’s still so dark.. Maybe he can just lie here for a few… more… seconds.  
“Adrien,” Marinette hums.  
“Hmm?” He snuggles his face deeper into the clothing. So comfortable… “wha’s ev’ryone lookin’ at?” He mumbles, fighting the sleep he was wishing for not too long ago, “ I can’t see ‘nything…”  
“Open your eyes,” Marinette giggles.  
Adrien groans as he buries his head deeper into his makeshift pillow. His eyelids feel heavy as he forces them open, what’s there to see a mile underground anyway?  
A faint yellow glow radiates in front of him, could it be… the sun? The silhouettes of Nino and Chloe slowly come into focus. Alya’s in the distance, running her hands along the markings on the cave walls. The markings! Chloe was right. Every mark carved into the stone walls glowed warmly all around them.  
This is amazing. Ancient writing covered every corner of the underground dome, the ceiling taller than the observatory back on campus.  
“This is, wow!” Adrien feels the sleep fade as he props himself up.  
“Marinette,” he calls excitedly, where did she go? “Do you see-”  
He stops as he meets her gaze just inches from his.  
He can feel his face getting warmer.  
Her eyes lock onto his, reflecting the dim glow of the caves.  
A golden radiance gently lining her cheeks.  
His heart is pounding in his throat.  
Shit.  
“Yes, I see it” she smiles, “it’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been trying to write in my spare time. I don't have an illustration to go along with this chapter, but I'll work on it soon. Just wanted to post this since it's complete. Hope you enjoy, thanks for your patience!


End file.
